not with a bang
by dytabytes
Summary: "That's enough to get you back to Oa if you're careful." "But not enough for the both of us."


"0.85% charge remaining."

The calm voice of Kyle's ring belies the panic whirling in his stomach. He looks over at Guy with a weak smile.

"Um. I have enough power to keep up life support?"

"Well hey, at least we got that, right? Betcha the li'l blue guys are already on their way out to get us."

Kyle can tell when Guy lies to make other people feel better. It's all in the way Guy clenches his jaw just so before he starts talking, as if he's pulling up his inner reserves of strength.

"Right…"

The same way he just clenched his jaw right now, actually.

They're drifting in space together in the aftermath of a particularly violent skirmish where Kyle was quite literally hit with a truck. By the time he got his breath back, he'd already been flying into some sort of whirling portal and Guy had been chasing right after him like he always did.

Now they're floating in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by wreckage and debris and clinging together to conserve heat and ring charge. There's not a living soul within scanning distance - not that either of them have enough charge to do a proper scan.

"Guy."

"Mm?"

"How much power do you have left?"

Guy pauses.

"Some."

Kyle knows that pause too. It's the "I know something, but I don't want to tell you" pause. He stares hard at Guy, trying to look as serious as possible.

"How _much_, Guy?"

Guy's eyes slide away.

"... 'bout five percent."

It doesn't take much mental math to figure out why Guy paused.

"That's enough to get you back to Oa if you're careful."

"But not enough for the _both_ of us."

Kyle musters up the energy to whack Guy upside the head. His bruised ribs creak, but it's worth it.

"Stop being an idiot! Go back! The Guardians will come get-"

"The Guardians could give a flying fuck!"

With a violent chop of his hand, Guy barges back into the conversation, wild-eyed and snarling.

"I know how this _works_, you bastard! I go flyin' home an' you stay here an' by the time I'm back with the cavalry, yer ring ran outta charge an' all that's left of you's a corpse where my fuckin' _partner_ used ta be!"

Kyle's eyes are wide and he waves his hands.

"Guy! Guy, we don't have any other options!"

Guy grabs Kyle by the collar and reels him in close, hissing.

"Yeah an' last time I didn't have any other options either, but then I was gone and she _died_ because I wasn't _there_ and-"

Guy cuts himself off, as if the vivid memories flashing through his head are choking the words back.

Kyle takes that moment to wiggle, trying to find some position that isn't quite so abusive to his battered body. His shifting sends pain flashing through his ribs, though, and a whimper escapes his throat. Guy snaps back to attention with a particularly pole-axed look on his face.

"Aw _shit_."

He lets Kyle go and slumps, holding his head in his hands.

"I just- I should've been there."

Kyle slowly reaches out to clap Guy on the back.

"This isn't like how it was back then. I'm not Tora, you know."

Guy snorts and in a flash he's somehow fine again, smirking at Kyle with nary a shadow in his eyes.

"Yeah, I know. She beats you out in the tits department every time, hands down."

Kyle rolls his eyes, but keeps going.

"So you'll go back without me then?"

Guy shakes his head.

"Nothin' doin', Kyle. I don't friggin' leave my pals behind. 'Specially not to die alone in the cold in _space_."

"So what, we'll die together?"

Kyle groans, but Guy just folds his arms across his chest and shrugs.

"If that's what happens, then that's what happens, sunshine, an' I won't regret it even a little. We're practically supposed to go out together anyway. You're my partner."

Something freezes deep inside Kyle's chest. He pauses, then murmurs.

"What if ... what if we weren't partners anymore?"

Guy scoffs and grins, but there's something dark gleaming in his eyes.

"Ain't nothin' you could do to drive me away, Kyle."

It's hidden under bravado and posing, but it's times like this that Kyle fully realizes just what it means that GL rings are _will_-powered. The will that drives the man before him can't be compared to rocks or mountains. Those are breakable, changeable, finite. No, this will is the gaps between the constellations, deep and endless and altogether irresistible.

"I-"

Kyle feels like his secret is lodged in his throat, clawing its way out even as he tries to hold it back. When he finds his voice again, there's a raw, desperate edge to it.

"I could make you go, Guy. I'll bet you anything, I could do it. And I _will_ if you don't leave-"

Guy looks Kyle straight in the eye and there's a sincerity in his voice that makes Kyle's breath catch.

"Try me."

Kyle makes a strangled noise and suddenly he darts forward, covering Guy's mouth with his own. He can't tell how long that trembling moment lasts. It's only a light flutter of eyelashes on skin, only a brush of chapped lips and a puff of warm breath mingling in the space between their bodies, but Kyle closes his eyes and maybe it lasts forever. There's so much he needs to convey, need and worry and passion and a million other emotions that no one will ever have words for, but he only has this one, flickering, ruby-throated moment-

And then his eyes open and it's gone.

Kyle backs up as fast as he can with panic rising and tension written in every line of his body. Surely Guy will leave now, fly off as fast as his ring can take him.

But Guy only smiles a crooked little half-grin and cups Kyle's cheek with his hand.

"I win."

__


End file.
